Earthforce
- Earthforce is a group of Earth-stationed Autobots in the Generation 1 continuity family.
Earthforce is the name of a cell of Autobots commanded by Grimlock and stationed on Earth to counter the rising threats of Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave, and Shockwave and their respective armies. Grimlock formed his group as a reaction to Optimus Prime's command regimen, which he interprets as weak and counterproductive to ending the Decepticon menace.
Earthforce's base of operations is in northern Canada. They get into lots of not-so-serious hijinx.
Fiction
Marvel Comics UK continuity
After Galvatron (uh, one of them) revived Prowl, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, and Silverbolt on the Ark, intent on mind-controlling them, they rebelled and sealed Galvatron away in the Ark's medbay. Perchance to Dream As Unicron neared Cybertron, Optimus Prime dispatched Wheeljack and Prowl to the Arizona desert to investigate Decepticon activity. Musing about the simplicity of the old days, they stumbled across Megatron, the Constructicons, and the Stunticons, deep into a plan to detonate Earth's atmosphere and convert it into Energon. Starting Over!
Meanwhile, the Dinobots were ambushed by Shockwave, Starscream, Ravage, and the Battlechargers, demanding to know how Grimlock was able to revive them without using the Creation Matrix. In the middle of the Dinobots' retaliation, Optimus Prime interrupted them angrily, asking them to be mindful of the humans' civilization and to adhere to the Autobot Code. Two Steps Back! Back on the Ark, Grimlock once again announced his dissatisfaction with Prime's leadership and threatened to take his Dinobots and leave the Autobots for good. Optimus Prime dismissed Grimlock's behavior as a tantrum, prompting a battle between the two that ended in stalemate. Conceding to Grimlock partially, Optimus Prime allowed Grimlock to be the Autobot Commander on Earth, so long as he play less rough than usual. A group of Autobots entered the room and announced that Prowl and Wheeljack had foiled Megatron's plan to detonate Earth's atmosphere, but were in danger and needed backup. With Prime's blessing, these Autobots joined the Dinobots to form the Earthforce. Break-Away!
Continuity problems
Part of an attempt to help sell Europe's Classics line of reissues, the Earthforce stories, black and white backup material for the issue's "main" story, intentionally harken back to the simpler era of Transformers' early years. The Earthforce stories share much in common with the main Marvel Comics UK continuity from which it branched. Optimus Prime is in his Powermaster form. Grimlock has recently revived his Dinobots and several Autobots with Nucleon. Many threads tie directly in from previous stories, such as the remaining Wreckers from Time Wars and their various dramas with the Mayhem Attack Squad.
However, many of these tie-ins were referred to in advance of them actually occurring in the continuity proper. It appears to the reader that writer Simon Furman knew vaguely what was going to happen in the future of the comic, so although he wrote these stories with this future in mind, when these links came to be, there was no possible place or loophole for these events to occur. For example:
- Galvatron II could not have possibly awoken several Autobots on the Ark prior to the Unicron War. (Though there is room for debate as to exactly which Galvatron this is.)
- Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave, and Shockwave could not possibly have been feuding on Earth.
- The second Decepticon Civil War did not include a third faction lead by Megatron.
- There's no room in the Marvel US/UK timeline between Grimlock reviving his Dinobots on Hydrus Four and the arrival of Unicron on Cybertron for Grimlock to return to Optimus Prime, get in a fight with him, and end up on Earth for an extended period of time fighting Megatron and Shockwave and Soundwave and Starscream while all of them are confirmed as being elsewhere.
Yikes.
Interestingly, Grimlock's Earthforce cast shows up in "On the Edge of Extinction!" as Grimlock arrives from Earth on the Ark. Though the presence of most of them could be explained by the need to push their Action Master toys (and it seems to be the only reason Blaster is there, as he was not an Earthforce character), the appearances of Skids, Ironhide, Silverbolt, and especially Sunstreaker are conspicuous, considering the Earthforce stories. (Sunstreaker's only prominent use in the Marvel Comics was in Earthforce. He was offline for most of it otherwise.) Wheeljack mentions they are freshly returned from near-death by Nucleon, quickly eliminating any possibility for Earthforce to have recently occurred.
Furman has since stated that a key part of the problem was that due to publishing deadlines, the altered format of the UK comic and the shorter US stories, he found that attempts to write UK strips tying into the concurrent US stories proved near impossible as the UK comic kept interrupting the the US strips with reprints of old UK stories in order to widen the gap in publishing. This in turn meant that the UK stories often pre-empted upcoming surprises in the US strips. Consequently he abandoned efforts to tie the two strips together.
But that's not the end of the continuity headache, oh no. Before Earthforce started and when US-UK continuity was still around, there was a storyline of the Mayhem Attack Squad hunting down Decepticon defectors Carnivac and Catilla. Hunting Party! Bludgeon killed Catilla and an enraged Carnivac swore vengeance. But he got the vengeance... during the Earthforce stories, with the Earthforce cast playing a role in the final story Where Wolf? and Carnivac joining them afterwards. So... does this mean Carnivac didn't get his revenge in the non-Earthforce timeline? Or did he get it differently? Or was it pretty much the same (off-panel), but with the US cast instead of the Earthforce cast? Arrrrrrg.
Trivia
- According the the Prey trade paperback collection, Earthforce is stationed in northern Canada because Simon Furman really likes polar bears. This is why there's one drawn in nearly every establishing shot.
